Bill allowing county school superintendents to take second jobs passes House

Tuesday, the Alabama House of Representatives passed a bill that would allow county school superintendents to take second or third jobs. It also removes that $600 cap on a county superintendent’s travel expenses.

House Bill 31 is sponsored by state Rep. Danny Crawford, R-Athens.

Crawford said that, “Current law limits travel expenses to $600 for a county education superintendent. This limit was set in 1947.

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State Rep. Juandalynn Givan, D-Birmingham, said, “This legislation would remove the cap entirely. Who monitors other than them submitting to their school board? Are we going to open it up to unlimited travel?”

Crawford said that, “It would be up to the school boards. You wish that there was a good school board.”

Givan said, “That is like wishing on a star. I have a problem with us passing a standard for one set of standards and having others not having a standard.”

Crawford said, “There is no cap on travel for city superintendents. This is just leveling the playing field. I want to leave it up to the local school board to make this decision. All superintendents will be treated the same.”

State Rep. Donnie Chesteen, R-Geneva, said, “We need to continue to let our local school boards make the best decision for our school systems.”

State Rep. Mary Moore, D-Birmingham, said that she did not understand why the bill would remove caps for travel expenses.

“I don’t understand why that is necessary,” Moore said. “I was on the Birmingham School Board. It is the administrators and the school boards that abuse the money.”

Moore said that when she was on the Birmingham Board, they went to Cincinnati for a workshop.

“We talked to the Superintendent of Cincinnati and met with the Superintendent of Louisville; then we got to the workshop, and I asked where are the other school boards? I was told the superintendent wanted a change of scenery.”

“When you take that restriction off you are asking for trouble,” Rep. Moore said. “Our Superintendent went to Paris, he went to Johannesburg, South Africa. He went there on our money.”

Moore said that this bill would also allow county superintendents to do another job. “The superintendent’s salary already outpaces the salaries of the people. I take issue with a superintendent having a second job.”

State Rep. David Sessions, R-Grand Bay, asked, “Will the county board be able to say you can not have another job?”

Crawford said that that would be up to the local boards. Crawford suggested that the superintendents could be an adjunct professor at a community college, or he could cruise timber on a Saturday afternoon if the board allowed it.

State Rep. Jim Hill, R-Odenville, said that would open it up to the volition of the superintendent.

He proposed an amendment at the meeting that would give the Board of Education the say on whether or not the superintendent can accept outside employment. In the example of the adjunct professor, the board of education shall have the authority to say he or she can do it on a Thursday night but not a Wednesday afternoon, for example.

Rep. Mary Moore said, “That is a start. They have got to cover it in his contract.”

Hill said, “In my county the superintendent is elected by the people. f the superintendent wants to do something outside of the administration of the schools, I want the board to have a say in that. The way I originally read it, a Superintendent could simply do something at 9 in the morning.”

Moore said, “The superintendents in the urban areas are out of control.”

State Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-Thomasville, said, “Are we going to hire part time superintendents? Education is too important for that.”

State Rep. Terri Collins, R-Decatur, said, “This bill’s purpose was to put the county superintendent on the equal footing with a city superintendent.”

State Representative Berry Forte, D-Eufaula, said, “There are no poor superintendents. All of them I know makes more than six digits a year. I like your amendment; but I am probably going to vote against this bill. There ain’t no such thing as a poor superintendent. My county, Bullock county, is a failing school system, and the Superintendent is making over $100,000. I wish I made over $100,000. I wouldn’t be out here arguing with you if I did.”

Givan said, “I do not agree with amending the language to say that they can not seek outside employment.”

Hill said, “If you remove that phrase, then they can go and seek outside employment.”

Givan insisted that the school board would control that in the contract.

Hill said that the board does not hire the superintendent when the superintendent is elected.

Givan replied, “What district is that?”

Hill said, “Mine. St. Clair County.”

Givan, who represents Jefferson County replied, “I don’t even know where that is. I am still perplexed to making that amendment and the bill itself.”

Hill replied, “I did not bring the bill. I brought the amendment.”

The House approved Rep. Hill’s floor amendment by a vote of 69 to 15.

Moore said, “In the urban areas we need to stop them from traveling and stop them from having outside jobs. I think we should put the same restriction on these municipal systems. You don’t even know that they got two or three other jobs.” Moore predicted that test scores at county systems would “plummet” if this bill passes. “I guarantee you the door that you want to open, you will want to close it real quick.”

State Rep. Tommy Hanes, R-Scottsboro, said, “I worked two other jobs on top of my firefighter job for 20 years, and nobody said anything.”

House passes General Fund Budget

The Alabama House of Representatives passed the state General Fund Budget on Tuesday.

The General Fund Budget for the 2019 fiscal year is Senate Bill 178. It is sponsored by Sen. Trip Pittman, R-Montrose. State Rep. Steve Clouse, R-Ozark, carried the budget on the House floor. Clouse chairs the House Ways and Means General Fund Committee.

Clouse said, “Last year we monetized the BP settlement money and held over $97 million to this year.”

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Clouse said that the state is still trying to come up with a solution to the federal lawsuit over the state prisons. The Governor’s Office has made some progress after she took over from Gov. Robert Bentley. The supplemental we just passed added $30 million to prisons.

The budget adds $50 million to the Department of Corrections.

Clouse said that the budget increased the money for prisons by $55,680,000 and includes $4.8 million to buy the privately-owned prison facility in Perry County.

Clouse said that the budget raises funding for the judicial system and raises the appropriation for the Forensic Sciences to $11.7 million.

The House passed a committee substitute so the Senate is either going to have to concur with the changes made by the House or a conference committee will have to be appointed. Clouse told reporters that he hoped that it did not have to go to conference.

Clouse said that the budget had added $860,000 to hire more Juvenile Probation Officers. After talking to officials with the court system that was cut in half in the amendment. The amendment also includes some wording the arbiters in the court lawsuit think we need.

The state General Fund Budget, SB178, passed 98-1.

Both budgets have now passed the Alabama House of Representatives.

The 2019 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, 2018.

In addition to the SGF, the House also passed a supplemental appropriation for the current 2018 budget year. SB175 is also sponsored by Pittman and was carried by Clouse on the floor of the House.

SB175 includes $30 million in additional 2018 money for the Department of Corrections. The Departmental Emergency Fund, the Examiners of Public Accounts, the Insurance Department and Forensic Sciences received additional money.

Clouse said, “We knew dealing with the federal lawsuit was going to be expensive. We are adding $80 million to the Department of Corrections.”

State Representative Johnny Mack Morrow, R-Red Bay, said that state Department of Forensics was cut from $14 million to $9 million. “Why are we adding money for DA and courts if we don’t have money for forensics to provide evidence? if there is any agency in law enforcement or the court system that should be funded it is Forensics.”

The supplemental 2018 appropriation passed 80 to 1.

The House also passed SB203. It was sponsored by Pittman and was carried in the House by State Rep. Ken Johnson, R-Moulton. It raises securities and registration fees for agents and investment advisors. It increases the filing fees for certain management investment companies. Johnson said that those fees had not been adjusted since 2009.

The House also passed SB176, which is an annual appropriation for the Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The bill requires that the agency have an operations plan, audited financial statement, and quarterly and end of year reports. SB176 is sponsored by Pittman and was carried on the House floor by State Rep. Elaine Beech, D-Chatham.

The House passed Senate Bill 185 which gives state employees a cost of living increase in the 2019 budget beginning on October 1. It was sponsored by Sen. Clyde Chambliss, R-Prattville and was being carried on the House floor by state Rep. Dimitri Polizos, R-Montgomery.

Polizos said that this was the first raise for non-education state employees in nine years. It is a 3 percent raise.

SB185 passed 101-0.

Senate Bill 215 gives retired state employees a one time bonus check. SB215 is sponsored by Senator Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, and was carried on the House floor by state Rep. Kerry Rich, R-Guntersville.

Rich said that retired employees will get a bonus $1 for every month that they worked for the state. For employees who retired with 25 years of service that will be a $300 one time bonus. A 20-year retiree would get $240 and a 35-year employee would get $420.

SB215 passed the House 87-0.

The House passed Senate Bill 231, which is the appropriation bill increase amount to the Emergency Forest Fire and Insect and Disease Fund. SB231 is sponsored by Sen. Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, and was carried on the House floor by state Rep. Kyle South, R-Fayette.

State Rep. Elaine Beech, D-Chathom, said, “Thank you for bringing this bill my district is full of trees and you never know when a forest fire will hit.

SB231 passed 87-2.

The state of Alabama is unique among the states in that most of the money is earmarked for specific purposes allowing the Legislature little year-to-year flexibility in moving funds around.

The SGF includes appropriations for the Alabama Medicaid Agency, the courts, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Alabama Department of Corrections, mental health, and most state agencies that are no education related. The Alabama Department of Transportation gets their funding mostly from state fuel taxes.

The Legislature also gives ALEA a portion of the gas taxes. K-12 education, the two year college system, and all the universities get their state support from the education trust fund (ETF) budget. There are also billions of dollars in revenue that are earmarked for a variety of purposes that does not show up in the SGF or ETF budgets.

Examples of that include the Public Service Commission, which collects utility taxes from the industries that it regulates. The PSC is supported entirely by its own revenue streams and contributes $13 million to the SGF. The Secretary of State’s Office is entirely funded by its corporate filing and other fees and gets no SGF appropriation.

Clouse warned reporters that part of the reason this budget had so much money was due to the BP oil spill settlement that provided money for the 2018 budget and $97 million for the 2019 budget. Clouse said they elected to make a $13 million repayment to the Alabama Trust fund that was not due until 2020 but that is all that was held over for 2020.

Clouse predicted that the Legislature will have to make some hard decisions about revenue in next year’s session.

Day Care bill delayed for second time on Senate floor, may be back Thursday

The day care bill, which would license certain day care centers in Alabama, was once again delayed on the state Senate floor after one lawmaker requested more information.

Its brief appearance Tuesday ended with state Sen. Gerald Dial, R-Lineville, saying a compromise had not yet been worked out with the bill’s detractors.

Alabama’s Senate has been hesitant to act on the legislation because of complaints of state Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, who has been an opponent of the bill since its introduction last year. The bill’s delay on Tuesday marks the second time its been taken off the Senate’s agenda.

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The bill has had a rocky time in this year’s session, but the bill’s sponsor state Rep. Pebblin Warren, D-Tuskegee, said she is still confident about its passage out of the Legislature.

Warren, D-Tuskegee, filed the bill this session with the support of influential lawmakers including Gov. Kay Ivey, who told reporters last year that she though all day cares should be licensed.

Mainly sparked by the death of 5-year-old boy in the care of a unlicensed day care worker, the bill had great momentum coming into this year’ session.

Despite the growing support from lawmakers, Religious groups had concerns that the bill would increase state-sponsored reach into religious day cares in churches and non-profit groups.

Warren, proponents, and ALCAP announced a compromise to the bill while it was still in the Alabama House.

Announced by ALCAP originally, the new bill was a weaker version in that it did not require that all day cares in the state be regulated. Instead, religious-based day cares would only need to be registered if they received federal funds. At a Senate committee meeting in February, Warren said a similar requirement was about to come from federal law in Congress.

The bill moved through the House in a overwhelming vote in favor of the proposal and passed unanimously out of a Senate committee a few weeks ago.

Warren, speaking to reporters after its passage from the House, said she was unsure if the bill would encounter resistance in the upper chamber.

It was the Senate that killed the daycare bill last year amid a cramped last day where senators took the bill off the floor. The bill may face similar complications this year, as lawmakers seem to be preparing to adjourn within a few weeks.

Speaking to reporter’s after the committee meeting, Sanford said the decision to file the bill was mainly a philosophical belief that the practice shouldn’t be illegal.

Sanford, a fantasy sports player before its ban, said that fantasy sports are a way to bring people closer together and not a means to win money. The Huntsville senator is not seeking re-election.

The bill’s failure in the Senate follows its trajectory last year too. A similar version of the bill, also sponsored by Sanford, failed in the Senate during the final days of the 2017 Legislative Session.

Since Sanford is retiring, it is unclear if the bill will even come back next session, or if it will even have a Senate sponsor.